Also, a quick note from me this will be the last review until Monday 23rd June as I have exams starting next week and pretty consistently over the following fortnight

Aw, I'll miss them.. They're great for revisiting old songs and finding out what others think about them..

We No Speak Americano is the best song of 2010 though :cry:

 

The other two are shite I agree.

We No Speak Americano = Summer/Autumn 2010.

 

I'd say just 'summer' but it really seemed to spread across a wider audience across quite a length of time, friends of mine excitedly playing it in September/October thinking it was a brand new song and replacing 'I Gotta Feeling' as the song you were guaranteed to hear at every single club night at least twice in the space of a few hours. There was even a dance to it which I still embarrassingly remember today, bopping away to it in various London clubs soundtracking pretty much every night out I had from the end of July to just before Christmas that year - reminding me of both hot late summer weather and freezing cold Autumn weather! While it definitely got overplayed I still love it today, weird yet insistently catchy and really sums up the end of my 21st year and beginning of my 22nd very nicely indeed.

How ANYONE could enjoy We No Speak Americano is hard to understand. It's absolutely vile.

W/E: 24/07/2010

 

Professor Green feat Lily Allen - Just Be Good to Green

 

 

Bringing this back as the majority of my exams are over and my life has felt oddly devoid of purpose. Unfortunately the music just Keeps. Getting. Worse. To this point, I don’t think Professor Green had actually released anything that was totally his own and didn’t sample songs over 20 year olds that all the little chavs listening wouldn’t know of, so they thought he was super original.

 

Lily Allen manages to save this, and I do love her voice a lot even if I do think she’s a bit of twit away from the music. In fact, her ‘I’ll be good to you, you’ll be good to me’ bit is so well sung it almost makes me like the song. But I will not be fooled. I love ‘Dub Be Good To Me’ and this sorry track is nothing on that classic. To be fair, at least Pro Green put effort into being unoriginal.

 

Mark Ronson - Bang Bang Bang

 

 

I’m really worried I’m just coming across as some kind of negative Nelly now, but I don’t like this one either. I don’t know, or care, who is singing here but I don’t like her voice on jolt and Mr. Generic rapper aint exactly some great performer either and the whole chorus is just plain annoying

 

Stick with this guys, positivity is hopefully just around the corner. I hope.

 

Eliza Doolittle - Pack Up

 

 

OK, we’re improving a little bit now. I do like this I’ll admit, even if it does bring back memories of a frankly depressing day on the road in August 2010. Radio One loved this song, I must have heard it about seven times in one day but I do actually quite like this

 

It’s yet another one of those ‘so happy and harmless I can’t justifiably diss it’ tracks, and I think the fact I haven’t listened to it in a good few years has made me appreciate this a hell of a lot more. It’s just good, summery fun and I’m just pleased we’ve reached a song I can review positively

 

Could do without that ‘tweet-tweet-tweet’ bit though. You’re not a bird love.

 

On another note, I've decided to only do one post in this a week just so I'm not at risk of catching up with myself too soon. So expect a new post every Sunday, probably around this time as I can't sleep for shit these days

Edited June 20, 201411 yr by James Silkstone

The rapper on Bang Bang Bang is Q-Tip, previously from A Tribe Called Quest & last featuring in the charts on Busta Rhymes' Thank You, deserves a little more respect than "Mr. Generic rapper", though I agree with you the song isn't all that fantastic.

Edited June 15, 201411 yr by Dobbo

I love Just To Be Good To Green, I do agree that Lily is the best thing though :cheer:

Love all three of those. I second what Dobbo said regarding Q-Tip, he's one of the most respected rappers in history :\

Love all three of those. I second what Dobbo said regarding Q-Tip, he's one of the most respected rappers in history :\

 

Is he? I'd genuinely never heard of him before :unsure:

Three forgotten yet fab pop tracks from that summer - the problem with 'Just Be Good To Green' is that I was sick of it by the time it was released, it was getting airplay for over two months so most of my memories of it are from before it even charted.

 

Bang Bang Bang was something of a surprise top 10 hit, certainly from the posts on Buzzjack at the time as I remember a lot thinking it was going to flop despite Ronson's name as it sounded too different to the big tracks from his first album. Reminds me of a holiday with friends in exotic Blackpool that summer, shame it's rarely been played since.

 

And Pack Up! Loved it, never thought Eliza would be more than a one-hit wonder with this so was fairly surprised when she hit #12 with Big When I Was Little last year. Another blissful summery track, saw her live at V Festival that year and remember at least one person making the "tweet tweet = Twitter" joke, when it was still a fairly new social networking medium.

W/E: 07/08/2010

 

The Wanted - All Time Low

 

 

The Wanted enter now, and considering at the time of writing they’ve just announced a break split it seems appropriate enough that we should get to have a look back on how they started. They had promise at the start, but the fates were always against them becoming the biggest boyband in the country. They started in JLS’s imperial faze, and as that ended One Direction got started on their domination meaning The Wanted maybe got about 2 months in the summer of 2011 where they could have been called the biggest boyband

 

It is a shame really, of all three big boybands this decade musically The Wanted have actually been my favourite. Their first album in particular is excellent, and though not the best on it “All Time Low” seems like a masterpiece when compared to the likes of “The Club Is Alive”. Though lyrically a bit stupid in places – “Standing on the yellow line, waiting at the station, or I’m late for work a vital presentation” – I appreciate the meaning of the song is good, even if it is that whiny ‘my girl left me and now I’m clinically depressed’ kind of song.

 

They started of well, and for only a few wobbles, The Wanted stayed consistently good for me until the end.

 

Travie McCoy feat Bruno Mars - Billionaire

 

 

Now, I like this song even if it is a bit stupid. At first glance, this probably would seem like some kind of boasting rap song about how much money and how many ‘hoes’ this guy has but its actually quite a sweat affair. It’s also pretty relatable, we’ve all dreamed of what our lives would be if we had that money and though edging on arrogance at points it ultimately has a lot of charm

 

Bruno Mars makes it, his voice is so good here and the chorus is a joy to listen too. So whilst I normally hate songs about monetary value, I have to admit I do like this one quite a bit and it kept the 15-year old James of summer 2010 quite happy too

 

Flo Rida feat David Guetta - Club Can't Handle Me

 

 

I’m honestly at a loss as to what I can say about this song as it’s just so damn generic and boring. It’s just one of those songs that just coasts along existing, not being overly terrible but not leaving any lasting impression or redeeming features in its wake. I’ve honestly never been as bored listening to a club anthem, and I wish I could give a more well rounded review here but what can I say about such a tedious and generic track

 

Swedish House Mafia - One (Your Name)

 

 

Now THIS is a lot more like it! I really did have a lot of time for Swedish House Mafia when they were about, and ‘One’ is definitely one of their best for me. It just sounds epic all the way through and its was nice at the time to hear from Pharrell who’s existence I’d all but forgotten about in proceeding years

 

Of course, there’s not much to this lyrically and it is just bog standard club music but it’s good bog standard club music and hell of a lot more interesting than the Flo Rida track. But really, I cannot review this track and give it justice as I’ve never heard it in the environment it was intended – can someone please tell me if this is as epic in a club as I’m imagining?

 

Magnetic Man - I Need Air

 

 

This week’s a little bit too dance heavy for me I’m afraid, and I’m not really good at reviewing dance music at all. I gather ‘I Need Air’ was popular at the time but I’ve never really been all that blown away by it; it moves fast and does whatever job its meant too well but I can’t say I’ll ever love this

 

 

That was a great week for new entries barring Guetta/Flo Rida. And regarding One, yes it's infinitely more epic in a club :D

W/E: 14/08/2010

 

Ne-Yo - Beautiful Monster

 

 

I like Ne-Yo, I’ll admit, and he’s probably been one of my favourite RnB singers of the late 2000’s but even he seemed to get bitten by the dance-pop bug as we headed into the new decade, though his first venture into it really came in 2008 with ‘Closer’ which I do not like one bit. Unpopular opinion maybe, but I’ve just never got why it was as popular as it was and I do actually prefer what we have offered to us here

 

‘Beautiful Monster’ is quite forgotten now, I think except for ‘So Sick’ the same can be said for a lot of Ne-Yo’s big hits (and he’s had more than you’d think) but I do actually remember liking this at the time. It’s almost dark, and it’s certainly a better foray into dance pastures anew than Usher’s “OMG” or the tripe Chris Brown would unleash to the world in 2011. The concept of a lover being some kind of metaphorical monster is of course nothing new, and ‘Beautiful Monster’ isn’t unique in anyway – this could be Jason DeRulo, Chris Brown, Usher, whoever and it wouldn’t be that different. But it’s a good listen.

 

Love all three of those. I second what Dobbo said regarding Q-Tip, he's one of the most respected rappers in history :\

 

Done some research on Q-Tip and he's done a lot more than I realized. Consider the 'generic rapper' remark revoked.

I'm in agreement with you on Ne-Yo. Closer was very bland and if anything rather annoying while Beautiful Monster was a far more interesting listen.

Great thread. Read through every page

The one thing that made Beautiful Monster stand out was the Michael Jackson influence. It's very evident in Ne-Yo's vocals and especially since this was just a year after Michael's death. Actually Ne-Yo's entire album sounded like Michael Jackson and it was really well done!

'Billionaire' is a song I prefer much more in its clean radio form than the original (another will follow later in 2010) - it's such a chilled summery track that for the word "f***ing* to keep being repeated in it seems a bit of a shame, and "fricking" fits it much more. It's probably still one of my fave songs of the decade so far, and as with so many in this thread so far takes me instantly back to four years ago.

 

Swedish House Mafia absolutely owned the next two years - wasn't massively a fan of One at first but very soon warmed to it once I found a version without the Pharrell lyrics. I love all their tracks except, of all things, their biggest seller by miles Don't You Worry Child. Compared to One/Miami 2 Ibiza/Antidote/Greyhound etc, DYWC seems so generic and boring in comparison which sadly is almost certainly why it's sold so much more than all their others.

 

Good to see some love for Beautiful Monster too! Very forgotten but it's always been an enjoyable listen for me.

W/E: 21/08/2010

 

The Saturdays - Missing You

 

 

The Saturdays never seem able to learn from their own mistakes, and have repeated the following one about four times. They always start out an era with an ‘OK’ song before following it up with an absolute almost masterpiece of a pop song but by that time no one really cares anymore, and it happens here.

 

‘Missing You’ isn’t a bad song, and to be honest quite summery so I can see the logic of an August release, but it’s not that interesting or throat grabbing – it doesn’t demand your attention the way awesome follow up ‘Higher’ does. I’ll save the rest of my comments for that review, this isn’t a complete misfire (pun maybe a little intended) but I wouldn’t call it an overwhelming success either. I did feel bad when they dipped from number one to number three over the week though, and I’d rather this had reached number one than ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’

 

Tinchy Stryder - In My System

 

 

My love for Tinchy Stryder was a very short affair; I completely adored his first three singles in 2009 but by the time his second era came around I’d kinda forgotten about him, moved onto different artists and ‘In My System’ wasn’t quite enough to get me interested in him once again

 

Four years later, and I’ve given myself the appropriate slap as I’m enjoying ‘In My System’ a lot more than I thought I would. I’d definitely rank it over ‘Never Leave You’ to be honest, and I guess the beauty of this thread is re-discovering songs and giving them a second chance because this honestly is not bad, at all.

 

In My System is pretty fabulous, very addictive and the chorus is great.

 

Missing You is one of my favourite Sats singles though :(